Heirlooms

By: Sandra Byrd

Narrated by: Melie Williams

Answering a woman’s desperate call for help, young Navy widow Helen Devries opens her Whidbey Island home as a refuge to Choi Eunhee. As they bond over common losses and a delicate, potentially devastating secret, their friendship spans the remainder of their lives.

After losing her mother, Cassidy Quinn spent her childhood summers with her gran, Helen, at her farmhouse. Nourished by her grandmother’s love and encouragement, Cassidy discovers a passion that she hopes will bloom into a career. But after Helen passes, Cassidy learns that her home and garden have fallen into serious disrepair. Worse, a looming tax debt threatens her inheritance. Facing the loss of her legacy and in need of allies and ideas, Cassidy reaches out to Nick, her former love, despite the complicated emotions brought by having him back in her life.

Cassidy inherits not only the family home but a task, spoken with her grandmother’s final breaths: ask Grace Kim—Eunhee’s granddaughter—to help sort through the contents of the locked hope chest in the attic. As she and Grace dig into the past, they unearth their grandmothers’ long-held secret and more. Each startling revelation reshapes their understanding of their grandmothers and ultimately inspires the courage to take risks and make changes to own their lives.

Set in both modern-day and midcentury Whidbey Island, Washington, this dual-narrative story of four women—grandmothers and granddaughters—`intertwines across generations to explore the secrets we keep, the love we pass down, and the heirlooms we inherit from a well-lived life.

©2022 Sandra Byrd (P)2022 One Audiobooks

Same author?

It is difficult to understand that this is the same author who wrote “Bride of a Distant Isle” and “Mist of Midnight”. This book did not draw me into the story or cause me to feel the relationships. It felt like a long description, instead.

The narrator made numerous pronunciation errors (sweet instead of sweat, for instance) and was bland. Sorry.

Everyone should adjust their cinnamon roll recipe to the one at the end of the book. The world would be a better place. But I can go to my Grandma’s recipe for that.

Easy feel good story

The story was very cute and inspirational. I enjoyed the weaving of each character’s story. As a foodie, I loved how the author respects the food of her family. Dishes do play an important role in community building and I particularly enjoyed how the characters interacted over special recipes. I do wish there was an accompanying PDF with the written recipes. At the end, we hear how to make a couple of recipes. It would be nice to have that written so I could follow the recipe. I would definitely like to try!

Dull, go nowhere kind of book.

Extremely disappointed. The book was tedious and slow and went absolutely nowhere. The reader was awful.

It was boring

The dialogue and story was terrible - the story left open so many loops that were introduced in to earlier chapters